Advances in sky camera systems are set to drive up CSP efficiency in the coming years. In Europe, tests of WobaS All Sky Imager (ASI) technology at the 50 MW La Africana parabolic trough plant in Spain increased plant revenue by 2% over a two year period. Developed by...
Susan Kraemer
Sener Offers to Expand its CSP as South Africa’s Coal Plant Blackouts Continue
Source: South Africa ITWeb Spanish-based technology and engineering company, Sener, together with its partners, has invested billions of rands in the Ilanga concentrated solar power 1 (CSP1) project,which provides solar-generated thermal electricity to around 100 000...
Brightsource Innovates a Solar-cured Coating for DEWA Tower CSP
Testing laboratories in Germany, France and Spain have confirmed the effectiveness of a new high-performance (97% absorbance) optical coating developed by Brightsource Energy, that can be “solar-cured” directly atop the receiver of tower CSP, like Brightsource is...
A Novel CSP Heliostat Goes from Lab to Market in Just 5 Years
The innovative pentagonal Stellio heliostat has gone from lab to commercial deployment in China’s Hami CSP project in record time
Evening Peak Solar CSP Projected to Undercut Gas in Chile’s Open Auctions
Unlike in other countries, Chile’s open auctions have no subsidies or technology restrictions, pitting CSP against combined cycle gas turbine power plants
Bill Gates Funds A Second Concentrated Solar Thermal Startup: Heliogen
Building on R&D from IDEALAB, Bill Gates has now invested in his second CSP-based start-up after Malta, with Heliogen. Press Release; Singular scientific achievement takes place at Heliogen’s commercial facility in Lancaster, California PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS...
NREL Awarded $2.8 Million to Develop a Long-Duration Thermal Energy Storage Technology
Surplus solar or wind to heat thermal storage would be a win-win, meeting changing market needs to store renewables – while transitioning fossil energy
Got Ideas on How to Commercialize sCO2 With CSP? Tell Uncle Sam
The goal of this RFI is to assess how we can accelerate the commercialization of sCO2 integration with CSP. Today, the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) has issued a new request for information (RFI) about the integration of advanced supercritical carbon dioxide...
US Lists $30 Million in 2019 CSP Research Awards
On November 6, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $128 million in funding for 75 projects in this program. Thirteen of these projects will focus on CSP research and development. Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development: $30 million for 13 research...
Logistics Firm Chooses Solar for Steam Washing at Port of Antwerp
Source: Port Technology News The Port of Antwerp has inaugurated the first Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) in Europe as part of its efforts to make its operations more environmentally friendly. [Actually, there are many such projects in Europe: for example the many...
Rebirth of SolarReserve’s 450 MW Likana Brings CSP Supply Chain Hope for Chile
This week, the Cerro Dominador Group/EIG Global Energy Partners bought the Likana Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project from US-based SolarReserve, which was unable to complete the project. SolarReserve had already developed Likana by accomplishing the preliminary...
Sodium-based Vast Solar Combines the Best of Trough & Tower CSP to Win our Innovation Award
At the 2019 SolarPACES Conference, Vast Solar took the SolarPACES Technical Innovation Award for their use of high temperature sodium-based HTF in tower CSP, presented in their paper: Vast Solar: improving performance and reducing cost and risk using high temperature...
Japan and Australia Test Solar Hydrogen Component
For countries such as Japan or South Korea with poor DNI and little space for wind and solar, the value of hydrogen is that it can be made overseas with renewable energy, then stored and shipped, and used to produce electricity, heat, or propulsion. This way,...
China Connects Luneng, its 5th CSP Project in Climate Push
Luneng’s 50 Megawatt (MW) tower CSP project with 12 hours of thermal energy storage (in molten salts) connected to the Chinese grid on September 20th
Solar steam could heat MENA Region industries for less
"But even though the costs, the lifetime returns, and the speedy pay-back proved so competitive, during the three year study, Cuadros found that small and medium businesses were loathe to actually purchase and own novel technology." Only the deep pockets of the oil...
Supcon Just Connected 50 MW of Tower CSP to China’s Grid at Record Speed
Supcon has completed its second CSP Tower project, the 50 MW Gonghe project at record speed – just under a year and a half
Q&A: How Risk Mitigation Finance Can Cut CSP Costs
Cutting risk in financing will be the next key to further cut CSP costs, according to the author of Non-recourse project financing for concentrated solar thermal power published in the journal Utilities Policy. Dr. Steven Geroe teaches Energy and Environmental Law and...
Novel CSP Design Combines the Solar Receiver with Thermal Energy Storage
Researchers propose combining a solar receiver with energy storage within one unit on the ground, by using a beam-down optical reflecting system
Add Hydrogen Combustion to a Solar Reactor for Carbon-Free Mining and Mineral Processing
Iron, nickel, alumina and copper mining processes are among the industrial processes that require heat at between 700°C and 1000°C. The advanced concentrated solar thermal (CST)reactors being developed by researchers globally can attain temperatures this high (and...
SolarPACES 2018 Proceedings Now Published with AIP
SolarPACES 2018 Proceedings Now Published with AIP The SolarPACES 2018 conference proceedings are now published with AIP, the American Institute of Physics (www.aip.org), volume number 2126. All accepted papers are freely accessible on the AIP website and contain an...
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